As Amelia appears on Manannán's island she purrs, "Hello Manannán, ready for our lesson?"
Manannán looks up from his reading and stares at the staff, "Amelia, where did you get that staff?"
Amelia's eyes sparkle as she says, "Part of our agreement was that I would claim a domain, so I did."
"Morrigan curse you! You know she hated us."
Amelia shakes her head, "She didn't, she just held most of you in contempt. I, she trained many of your most famous heroes. She taught herself the secrets of the mist by following wisps. And she stole the secrets of magic from the Romans. What did you lot do when the Britons asked for aid? Only Morgana, Brigid, Lugh, Toutatis, Taranis, Cernunnon, Epona, Maponos, Ogma, and Sucellos heeded their call, the rest of you were too caught up in your petty fifes and squabbles. Come, I believe it is time for our lesson, is it not?"
Manannán shakes his head, "Nay lass, there are no more lessons."
Amelia smiles, "But isn't that against our agreement my betrothed? Teaching in sword and magic for marriage?"
"There is nothing more I can teach you."
Amelia levels her staff at Manannán, "And how would you know that Lord of the Sea? It couldn't have anything to do with my student now could it? Or how you never had the guts to hold your wife to account, and instead chose to wipe her memories of my student along with his memories."
Manannán smoothly stands up and steps backwards, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Amelia steps forward, "You don't? So did you just forget that other people have eyes and ears? Or that I taught all my students to write, and kept in contact with them? Or that I, she might have spent some time looking after her student killed his own son because he forgot his own instructions to my sister? Pick up your sword Manannán, it's time for our lesson and we will continue to have lessons until I am happy that 'I have learnt' everything you can teach me."
"Amelia, we don't have to do this."
"Are you trying to break our agreement oh great king, after all, we are betrothed? You are mine ere the new year, and you will find that I can be all the woman you could ever want. Of course, once we have children, if you ever go journeying to avoid responsibility, I will geld you and keep your balls in a box on my shelf. If ever bring that cloak anywhere near me, I will geld you and give your balls to Kate. Now pick up your sword, as it's time for our lesson. Then we need to make you a wand, as I need to teach you Roman magic. Or did you forget that part of our agreement?"
"I…"
"Take up your sword great king and show me what you know."
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Amelia walks into the Bullpen still thinking about her last visit with Mac Lir. Especially without the awe of his skills that she'd had previously. Skills that she now knows are purely born from experience, and not deliberate refinement.
"Boss, you look different."
Amelia looks up as Moody stumps towards her. Putting a smile on her face she nods, "I found what I was looking for, and more."
"Where did you go?"
"Isle of Skye."
Jones pipes up with, "Shit boss, do you have a death wish?"
Amelia smiles, "Are you asking for some retraining Jones?"
Jones quickly grabs a folder of paperwork that's sitting on his desk and opens it.
Moody barks a laugh, "Fudge and Dumbledore both want to speak to you. I've also left last weeks copy of La Magique on your desk. I figure you want to read it before you see either of them."
Amelia nods, "I spoke to the queen before I went home. Albus sentenced one of his students to death."
"Who?"
"Morgana, she's the Great Queen of the Tuath De and the inheritor of Danu. Of course, she was just Badb when Cu lived."
"Bones, whose domain did you take over?"
Amelia smiles as her staff turns into a barbed whalebone harpoon, "I'll give you a clue, this is Gáe Bulg."
Moody grunts, "I'll look it up later. I meant which of his students did he sentence to death."
Amelia looks around the ballpen and speaks loudly and clearly, "Miss Greengrass in her role as a member of the Celtic people. A people that have not signed the Statute of Secrecy and are by the terms of the agreement not bound to it. I expect each and every one of you to read the Statute of Secrecy in the next week. We will categorically not be executing any arrest warrants for people that are part of the Celtic culture, or appear to be part of their culture. No wand, no warrant. Understood? I would rather you attempted to wrestle a Dementor bare handed than see you commit suicide against one of them."
Calls of "Yes Ma'am" echo through the ballpen, and Amelia nods before she makes her way into her office.
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As Minister Fudge is led into her office, Amelia looks up from reading through the third page of the Statue of Secrecy. "Good afternoon Minister, how may I help you?"
Fudge glances at the newspaper and wrings the edge of his bowler hat, "You've seen the news."
Amelia nods and goes back to reading, "I have."
"What do we do?"
"In what respect?"
"Everything, the ICW is in shambles, Crouch was trapped inside and nobody can get in. The French are demanding a meeting, and Hogwarts isn't part of the Ministry anymore."
Amelia sighs and puts the page down, "Why are you talking to me about it?"
"I'm a bit wary about Dumbledore, as he's the only mugwump that escaped from the building. Then there's all of the breaches of the Statute he caused, but was never charged for. And he was kicked out of Hogwarts for oath breaking."
Amelia arches an eyebrow, "I hadn't heard that one."
Fudge nods, "I got a stack of letters three inches high asking me about it."
Amelia rolls her eyes as she creates a copy of the statute and holds it out, "First of all, read the actual Statute of Secrecy and find out what your obligations are. Then meet with the French and for… all that's holy get rid of Dolores before she gets you impeached or worse, killed."
"Why? She's been with me since the beginning, and I wouldn't be where I am without her!"
Amelia lets go of a little of the glamour she's using to mask her presence, causing Fudge to press back into his chair with a look of panic on his face. "Cornelius Fudge, you came to me for advice. Do not then get defensive when I give it. Dolores is a bigoted simple minded toady who has got to where she is today by lying, cheating, fawning, bribing, and framing anyone that opposed her. To her you are just a patsy that is too stupid to realise that you are disposable. Somewhere she will have a list of every single bribe you've taken, every single time you broke the law out of expediency, and every single time you turned a blind eye. If you ever look like you're getting out of control, she'll allude to this list, but she'll never let you see it. If you continue to push, she'll burn you and allow the information to be known."
Amelia pulls the glamour back around her, "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to be doing."
As she picks up the page she was reading, Fudge snatches the copy off the table and flees her office. A few minutes later Moody pokes his head through the door, "Are you ok there Bones?"
Amelia looks up from her seat, "Just peachy."
"Good, Dumbledore's just turned up."
Amelia groans, "Great, what does he want?"
"Who knows."
"Escort him in then."
A few minutes later Albus is led into the office, where he reluctantly takes a seat on the plain wooden chair. "Amelia, it's good to see you."
Amelia ignores him as she keeps reading.
Dumbledore waits a moment before saying, "Madam Bones…"
Amelia looks up and waves the page at Albus, "Have you ever read the Statute of Secrecy?"
"No… ah yes, I've skimmed it."
"Then you are aware of the fact there is an exemption for wandless magic done while wearing the vestments of faith?"
"Ah, no?"
"How about the prohibition against any educational institution from teaching students any magic that would allow them to produce an aura detectable by non-magical people?"
"Um, no?"
"Are you sure you read the Statute of Secrecy, as signed by England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Persian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire?"
Albus sounds offended when he says, "Of course, it's the first chapter of every book of law in the country."
Amelia hums, "I see, well I specifically asked records for a copy of the original signed document and cut it into sections for ease of reading. See, this document reads more like terms of surrender than something people would have voluntarily agreed to. 'The undersigned agree to bring all new magicals not claimed by the Holy Roman Church under their rule.'"
Albus reaches out his hand and Amelia passes him the page she was just reading from. When he lowers the page, Amelia gives him a tight smile, "You are a conquered people, and you were their chief jailer. Congratulations."
"You don't include yourself in that?"
Amelia shakes her head, "I am Celtic by marriage and inheritance. You asked to see me."
"I, we. Hogwarts has…"
Amelia interrupts Albus, "The ministry broke their own treaties with Hogwarts. The Daily Prophet did a front page piece on it that was mostly factual."
"But we need to…"
Amelia shakes her head, "No Mr Dumbledore, we don't need to. You want to. I've already heard about your dismissal from Hogwarts." She points at his jiggling hand, "What you should be doing is taking responsibility for your own actions and trying to put right the things you can. Not embroiling yourself in more trouble."
Albus opens his hand to reveal two Gringotts keys, "You know what's happened with these?"
Amelia nods, "I do, I can smell the curse from here."
"Can you tell me where you learnt about it?"
"I could."
"Will you tell me?"
"No, nor will I interfere with a justly applied punishment. Celtic curses always need something to latch onto, and you have two latched onto the same thing. That tells me that you've known about your crime for a long time, and you still haven't faced justice. Somewhat hypocritical for someone that swore to uphold the law when they became the Chief Warlock don't you think?"
"You don't get to judge me, everything I did I did for the betterment of the magical world."
"Mr Dumbledore, a crime committed in error or ignorance is still a crime. You are lucky that I have only educated guesses about what the crime is, otherwise I would already be arresting you and taking you before the Wizengamot for stealing from an orphan. Yes Mr Dumbledore, there are only a couple of reasons why vault keys would be affected by a Celtic curse, and everyone knows that you started having trouble with the keys the same August that Danann came back from the dead. Now I am a very busy woman is there something that you actually need my attention for, or is this meeting over?"
Albus opens his mouth and Amelia adds, "Anything that's actually relevant to my job."
Albus closes his mouth, and then opens it again, "Why are you reading the Statute of Secrecy?"
Amelia's eyes sparkle as she says, "With the collapse of the ICW it falls to individual countries to enforce the Statute. Can't very well do that if we don't know what it says, can we now? Especially when their collapse happened because they were trying to persecute someone that was exempt from the Statute already."
Albus' mouth snaps shut with a loud click as he stands up and storms out of the office.
A few minutes later Master Auror Robbards pokes his head in, "Is everything alright boss?"
Amelia nods, "Make sure that there are a few official copies of the Statute of Secrecy in the break room. Spread the word that I expect them to read the original, not the one in the law books."
Robbards sourly looks at the pile of neatly sliced parchment, "Yes Madam Bones."
As the door closes, Amelia looks sourly at the pile of books and scrolls on the small chair in the corner of her office, "Stupid bloody oaths of office. 'You will enforce the law' Why did I ever want to be an Auror again?"
An hour later she slips out of the office with the Auror handbook, before returning with a couple of laminated A3 posters with the Auror's oath printed on it. One goes into the lobby beside the poster of Albus, while the others go on the back of the door to the toilets and break room.
Just before the end of her shift, Moody stumps into her office after knocking, "Bones, what's with the new posters?"
Amelia waves at the pile of books and scrolls in the corner, "We all swore that oath on our magic. That's all the laws and treaties that we are bound to uphold. How many of them have you read?"
Moody glances over the pile, "All the books. Why?"
"Knowing what you know now, do you want to be an oath breaker?"
Moody sighs, "Not if I can help it. Though I'm pretty sure that all, second thoughts, most of the methods of doing something with that have already been classified as dark magic."
Amelia gives a wide smile, "Oh, I know. There are more than a few Wizengamot members I am looking forward to calling out. Along with the toad bitch if she's taken her oaths. If not, then I look forward to forcing her to take the oaths as an undersecretary."
Moody looks askance at Amelia, "Why?"
"How long do you think she could keep an oath of strict political impartiality?"
"Where did you get that one from?"
Amelia levitates a thin volume off the floor, "Ministry manual and directory. It's the second document referred to in the book of laws.